Antivirus

ESET's security software is fast, accurate and thorough. It lacks some extra features we take for granted but has a very light impact on your system performance.

Trend Micro offers solid malware protection, but you'll see a slowdown during scans

Sophos Home Premium provides decent protection against malware for a fair price but lacks many commonplace antivirus features.

Avast Free Antivirus offers a ton of features for a free antivirus program but has mediocre malware protection and a heavy system load.

AVG AntiVirus Free is beaten in features by its more glamorous sibling Avast Free Antivirus and beaten in malware protection by everything else.

Windows Defender isn't the absolute best antivirus software, but it's easily good enough to be your main malware defense.